Nurses at the Women's Care Unit at the UCHealth Poudre Valley Hospital recently introduced moms and dads to the "swaddle bath" for newborns. The gentle bath is designed to be a more serene and cozy experience for infants (read: a less stressful experience for both baby and parents).

Courtesy of UCHealth

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During a swaddle bath, parents loosely wrap a blanket around their baby, and then both the newborn and the blanket are submerged in warm water (around 100 to 103.9 degrees Fahrenheit) up to the child's shoulders. From there, each limb is unwrapped, washed, rinsed, and rewrapped. It so relaxing that most babies fall asleep while it's happening.

For decades, newborns were taken away from their mothers immediately after birth to be rinsed off by nurses. But experts believe that washing a baby immediately after birth can lead to distress, and can affect the baby's health and breast-feeding success. Removing the baby's vernix or coating right after birth can also dry out his or her skin, putting the child at greater risk for infections, and decreasing his or her ability to regulate their body temperature. A swaddle bath, given at least 24 hours after birth, eliminates all of those issues and risks.

Courtesy of UCHealth

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"Most of the time with a sponge bath, the baby will cry, and you see the parents turn away," nurse Edna Sailer said in a statement from the hospital. "It can be a bit dramatic for both parent and baby." However, only 38 percent of babies cried during the swaddle immersion bath, whereas 93 percent cried during the typical sponge bath, according to a study conducted by the hospital staff.

"Babies seem so much calmer; they don't cry as much; it takes less time; and they seem so much warmer and cleaner than with a sponge bath," Shelli Calkins, the charge nurse at the Women's Care Unit, said in a statement from the hospital. "I love how much happier they are."

Newborn Alexa Crimando recently experienced a swaddle bath at the hospital and fell asleep while it was happening. "Alexa loved it," her mother Kelley Crimando said. "She didn't cry and basically was sleeping the whole time—and we had a fussy baby the first few days, so this was a whole different experience."

Hospital staff plan to expand the bathing method to more hospitals in the area soon. To learn more visit UCHealth.org.